“Walking Among the Dead” by Chinook the Ferret

LOSING YOUR JOB, IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU…
I walk among the dead now. We are surrounded by the dead everyday but we do not see them until we become dead ourselves. Like many Americans, I am one of the many unemployed, doomed to roam the classifieds for eternity it seems in search of work.

It is funny how the these beings are unseen by most. Sometimes they are seen if only for a moment or two until they once again are faded into the background like a prop on a stage. Living in the desert is unbearable in the summer months and I wonder why I ever decided to move to Arizona in the first place but this is my home and will be for a long time now. Interviewing and job hunting in the 21st Century is a new process for this old dog after losing my job of 14 years. I have to learn and adapt quickly if I am going to survive. Walking to the bank to withdrawn my unemployment earnings of $240.00, the maximum you can get in the state of Arizona regardless if you made $6.00 an hour or $50.00 an hour on your previous job, I notice the dead for the first time.
These lugubrious walking people come in many forms. It is funny how I never noticed them before. Considering it is 2pm in the afternoon and unbearable hot, I am surprised at the many people walking the streets. “It’s lunch time” I tell myself as I continue on my walking trek stopping every 5 minutes of so to take a rest because of the chronic pain that surges through my lower back, knees, and feet. I spot a young good-looking man about in his early twenties, built, thin, blond hair, and tan. “I wished I was him and may-be I could get a job, having my youth back” I wonder to myself as I take my rest break. A frown forms on my face as I noticed this young man has tuck tape taped around his beaten up sneakers. To think of it his hair kind of looks dirty too and so does his clothes. I didn’t realize it; he is one of the dead. He walks with a vacant hopeless glaze in his eyes walking to God knows where. I am not sure by the look in his face that even he knows as he shuffles away out of my sight.
I turned away not liking what I see and I see an old man, older than me with a dirty type Santa Claus beard stopped in his tracks to pick up a penny. “How degrading” I think to myself to pick up a penny in front of all these cars waiting for the light to change green. The light changes and I am able to get up from my rest break and continue my walking, walking across the streets seeing normal looking people without a care in the world as they are beaming with joy, happiness, or just plain content. Among the happy, the defunct citizens seems to engulf the few happy people walking the streets but no one seems to mind. The walking dead in this scene do not grab you or try to eat your guts like in some low rate horror movie. The people I see are invisible to the world, once productive citizens contributing to society, now discarded, worthless, out dated.
I look forward to my bank visit for some human interaction. To my disappointment, the teller at the bank made me feel worst by looking at me as to say, “Oh you are one of our dead customers, dead beats. We will not make any money off you so I will not bother with my sales pitch to sell you our credit card. I tried to make some small talk but I can tell she is not interested. I walk home wishing I had a bottle of water but too conservative with my money now to even think of wasting a $1.69 at the Circle K I pass on my way home. I am almost home now and I notice a penny on the ground with the heads facing up. This means good luck my mother once told me and I picked it up awkwardly as a shot of pain shoots in my lower back. A penny today, a penny tomorrow I sing to myself and then it hits me. What have I become? A tear rolls down my face and I have just realized I have become one of the dead. I cried in despair and frustration on the rest of my walk not caring who saw but in my heart I knew I have faded into the background among the dead.